Doubling down on Commitments
Two weeks ahead of COP27, countries are beginning to announce pledges that they plan to announce at COP27. Australia and New Zealand have both pledged methate commitments, while bilateral conversations are happening between the US and Saudi Arabia, and India and Egypt.
Climate Impacts, Disaster Preparation
As the effects of climate change become more apparent, more disasters are occurring that “have compounding and cascading implications.” A newly released report by UN agencies for weather and for disaster risk reduction maintains that half the world is unprepared for disasters, as extreme weather and climate disasters continue to multiply.
EU Winter and Fossil Fuels
The oncoming winter is a major topic of discussion in European news, and everyone has a different plan for securing supplies. Putin wants Turkey to become the gas hub for Europe, some officials are turning to Africa as a potential alternative gas supplier to Europe, and there is a common belief that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an incentive to hasten the transition away from fossil fuels.
Climate Finance
Financial news focuses on calls for the World Bank to be reformed after its troubled, Trump-appointed CEO David Malpass refused to clarify whether he believed in climate change research. These calls have come from key economies (the UK, US, and Germany).
BlackRock and Citigroup, two significant banks and asset managers, and other major banks do not intend to send their CEOs to COP 27. Climate finance is central to COP27 climate talks and key issues of Adaptation and Loss and damage financing. The absence or presence of the executives could matter little.
“One thing is whether you come to a conference, the other is whether you’re delivering on the commitments that you made,” Alok Sharma.
V20 & G20 to launch Global Shield against Climate Risks
To stop the climate crisis from becoming worse, we need to drive global climate action with even greater commitment. This includes that we must acknowledge that there is climate-related loss and damage and that the most vulnerable countries, in particular, need our solidarity in dealing with it. The G7 an V20 have come together to finalise the details of the Global Shield against Climate Risks, which will offer millions of vulnerable and poor people financial and social protection after climate disasters.
The Global Shield includes:
- The G7, V20, and other climate-vulnerable economies have improved their coordination within the global climate and disaster risk finance and insurance (CDRFI) architecture to ensure that the efforts of various institutions and donors at the international, regional, and national levels are coordinated.
- A global, adaptable, cooperative finance structure that would mobilize and combine various donor and other monies and allow for a more methodical, all-encompassing approach to reducing protection gaps.
- Sustained protection in the face of increasing climate risks by scaling up existing successful CDRFI programmes, including social protection schemes, and preparing country-specific, needs-based CDRFI support packages, including the scaling up of smart premium and capital support to address affordability barriers.
Tweet of the Week
Few things on Earth matter more than whether COP27 is a failure or a success. Global heating is a global problem that needs global coordination to solve. COP26 was clearly an abysmal failure, despite how incrementalists tried to spin it.
— Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) October 17, 2022
